Union chief to join Safe Streets panel

Friday

May 3, 2013 at 12:01 AM

STOCKTON - The head of Stockton's police union will join a panel discussion today with onetime New York City Police Chief William Bratton and others on a proposed half-cent sales tax hike for Stockton.

Scott Smith

STOCKTON - The head of Stockton's police union will join a panel discussion today with onetime New York City Police Chief William Bratton and others on a proposed half-cent sales tax hike for Stockton.

Organizers of the Stockton Safe Street symposium have invited 400 guests to the free event and added 100 tickets that will be available at the door on a first-come first-served basis.

Sgt. Kathryn Nance, president of the Stockton Police Officers' Association, said she agreed to join the panel, but she's not ready to endorse Mayor Anthony Silva's tax proposal.

Rather, she's using the opportunity to address the forum to push for consensus.

"I'm still hopeful that the city side will take our offer for mediation," she said. "If they're going to put me up there, and I can talk about that, I'm going to take the opportunity."

The police union last month offered to pay $5,000 a day for mediation to help Mayor Silva and City Manager Bob Deis come together and craft a single tax proposal for voters.

The city's leadership remains divided between Silva's restricted tax proposal, which aims to raise $18 million annually to hire 100 more police, and City Hall's Marshall Plan, which includes Operation Ceasefire, hiring more police and aspects still under development.

Political consultant Allen Sawyer, a backer of the Safe Streets proposal, said he will moderate the panel discussion, touching on timing of the tax during bankruptcy, the correlation between police staffing and crime, and the difference between a general and restricted tax.

Nance said that she's still not convinced that the mayor's tax proposal won't derail Stockton's ongoing bankruptcy, and she wants to be assured that any new income won't be misused.

"I'm going to push the leaders of our city and the backers of this tax proposal," she said. "I'm going to keep pushing it at any forum that I can."